Rp 109b allocated for poor families

Rp 109b allocated for poor families

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration has set aside Rp 109.52
billion (US$14.6 million) to help poor families in the city as
part of its social safety net program, secretary to the City
Council's Commission E for social welfare Agus Waluyo said on
Thursday.

Quoting data from the Regional Development Planning Agency
(Bappeda), Agus said that Rp 106.77 billion of the total funds
would be given directly to the poor families, while the remaining
Rp 2.74 billion would be earmarked for the project management and
operations.

Agus said that East Jakarta would receive the biggest share of
the funds at Rp 34.18 billion followed by West Jakarta with Rp
23.64 billion.

South Jakarta will receive the third largest share, Rp 19.47
billion, while North and Central Jakarta will receive Rp 14.93
billion and Rp 14.55 billion respectively.

Agus said the funds would be given to the families through the
Village Resilience Board (LKMD), mainly to help procure basic
foodstuffs.

"The money will be given in stages over four months to the
city's 265 subdistricts beginning in the middle of this month,"
Agus said.

He said that the provision of the funds, to be taken from the
1998/1999 city budget, was made in response to the sharply rising
number of families living below the poverty line.

"Jakarta is already home to more than 57,000 families living
below the poverty line," Agus said, adding that the program would
be overseen by Bappeda.

According to data from the city's office of the National
Family Planning Board, 57,218 Jakarta families were living below
the poverty line in October, up from 23,384 families in July.

The data stated that with 16,937 poor families, West Jakarta
had the highest number of any of the mayoralties in October. The
previous month East Jakarta had the most, with 13,355. (ylt)